Luke: Interpreter of Paul, Critic of Matthew

This re-appraisal of Luke's theological significance starts from a fresh evaluation of his picture of Paul. A companion of Paul, who understood and accepted the apostle's fundamental insight that the Law no longer had a part in bounding the people of God, he nevertheless entered upon a radical interpretation of Paul's stance, and so of the story of Paul, in the light of his belief that the Christian despensation was at one with God's convenantal dealings with Israel of which it was the fulfilment. In the light of these convictions, he writes a gospel the theological outlook of which is very different from Matthew's in its eschatological beliefs and in its attitude both to the Law and to Israel. These are such as to suggest that Luke's gospel could actually be a reaction against Matthew's. The third part of the work considers this possibility to make it likely that Luke did in fact know Matthew's gospel, that his was a deliberate recasting of much of its thought in terms of his Pauline outlook and of his approval of Mark. An epilogue suggests that Matthew and Luke could have been contemporaries and related to the same church.